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McKinstry
claims first Down Victory
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Kenny
McKinstry and Noel Orr made it 2 Northern Ireland Championship
wins in a row with victory on the F&M Contracts Down
Rally 2009. Kenny followed up his Bushwhacker success with
a convincing start to finish win over Northern Ireland Championship
rival Derek McGarrity.
McGarrity,
with James McKee in the co driver’s seat, arrived
at the Castlewellan based event with a healthy 19 points
advantage in the Hankook NI series and mathematically
he only had to finish in the top three to secure the 2009
title. Adding to his task was a last minute swap to an
ex Carlos Sainz Ford Focus WRC in place of the Impreza
and Corolla WRC that he has used so far this season.
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The
event kicked off with the 5 mile test is Rostrevor with
the crews then making their way to the 6.5 mile Tollymore
stage.
McKinstry quickly got into his stride over the first 2 stages,
pulling out a 16 second advantage at the first service in
Castlewellan Forest Park, helped somewhat by a stall by
McGarrity on the start line of the first stage.
Also providing some excitement to the event was the anticipated
Production Class battle between Championship 3rd and 4th
placed drivers Neil McCance and Donegal’s Donagh Kelly.
However, the battle never materialised as McCance’s
Mitsubishi did not emerge out of stage 1, transmission failure
bringing an abrupt end to the number 4 cars’ event.
This allowed Kelly and co driver Kevin Flanagan to slot
into 3rd place at the end of the first batch of stages ahead
of the Subaru of Enda McNulty and Raymond Mason’s Mitsubishi
Lancer in 5th.
The second run through the Rostrevor and Tollymore gave
McKinstry two more fastest times; with McGarrity content
to sit back in second overall, aware that if he could keep
at his current pace, the NI title was within his grasp.
Donagh Kelly had also adjusted his pace to take into consideration
the retirement of his two chief Championship rivals, McCance
and Raymond Johnston, and was just doing enough to keep
McNulty and Mason in check.
At the halfway service the 2 wheel drive battle was between
the Ford Escort Mk2’s of Viv Hamill and Oran Donnelly.
Hamill held a 20 second advantage on stage times, but a
20 second road penalty left him equal 8th overall with Donnelly
on the results sheets. However everything was to change
with a mistake from Hamill on stage 5, Drumkeeragh. The
Escort left the road and landed, virtually undamaged, among
the bushes ensuring immediate retirement from the event.
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New
MSA Hankook Northern Ireland Rally Champions
Derek McGarrity/James McKee
Photo: www.roydempster.com
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Some
of the local crews entered in the event were also having
mixed results. The Chrysler Sunbeam of Banbridge’s
John and Gavin Devlin stopped with transmission troubles
on stage 2, while Downpatrick’s Damien Hynds got as
far as stage 4 before his Mitsubishi slipped off the road
and into retirement. Local leading ladies Championship contender
and daughter of the Rally leader, Emma McKinstry put in
competitive times during the day to comfortably stay in
the top ten along with Gilford’s John McGaffin in an
older model Impreza WRC. Ballykinlar’s Sean Warnock
battled with a misfiring engine until stage 7 before having
to retire. Drumaness driver Paul Killen battled with a bent
rear axle, and a sore foot, to put in some competitive time
in his class ahead of Christian Cochrane and Castlewellan’s
Micheal McMullan and Barry Savage. Scottish visitors Allan
McDowell and Gavin Heseltine’s Opel Kadett made it
as far as the end of stage 2 but they were able to restore
the car back to health and continued later as a Course car
to gain some experience for a planned visit again in 2010.
With the second half of the event now moving to Drumkeeragh
and Castlewellan, the crews now faced two different types
of stage, with narrower roads and tighter corners, the final
part of the Rally was sure to make the drivers work for
their positions.
Again McKinstry held the upper hand, stopping the clocks
6 seconds faster than McGarrity through stage 5 and a full
12 seconds quicker through the longer, tighter Castlewellan
test to consolidate his overall lead. Kelly, McNulty and
Mason all took no chances through the first run of these
stages to maintain their original places in the top 5.
Cyril Doherty and Graham Henderson retired on stage 5 with
broken steering and on stage 6 Martin Cairns had a narrow
escape when he stopped to change a puncture, and as the
WRC Subaru sat ticking over, some of the unburnt fuel in
the exhaust system caused a small fire. Luckily the crew
were able to extinguish the fire but the time delay put
them out of the event.
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2009
Sunoco Fuels Northern Ireland Group N Champions
Donagh Kelly/Kevin Flanagan
Photo: www.roydempster.com
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With
the last two stages remaining, drivers started to concentrate
on getting to the end of the rally, with the exception of
Donagh Kelly who had spent most of the day listening for
problems with the car. He decided to up the pace over the
last 2 tests and was beginning to get close to the times
of Derek McGarrity before the end of the day.
However the day was to belong to Kenny McKinstry and Noel
Orr. The Subaru Impreza crew had been fastest on all the
days’ stages, despite having worries over gear selection
early on to claim victory on their first visit to the F&M
Contracts Down Rally.
Derek McGarrity’s second overall was more than enough
to secure the MSA Hankook Northern Ireland Rally Championship
title with one round to spare and third overall also wrapped
up the 2009 Sonoco Fuels Production Class Championship for
Donagh Kelly and Kevin Flanagan.
The winner, Kenny McKinstry commented about his yearlong
Championship battle at the finish at the King’s Inn
in Castlewellan
“We did what we had to do, and it was up to Derek to
make mistakes but he didn’t make any. It’s nice
to win the Down Rally- it’s the first time that we’ve
done the event and I think we were fastest on all eight
stages, which is nice”
Oran Donnelly and Paul Hughes arrived back to Castlewellan
in 6th place overall to win the Superdrive two –wheel-drive
category ahead of Paul Killen in 11th overall.
As always, the event organisers, Rathfriland Motor Club
would like to thank everyone who helped make the event a
success, especially the sponsors F&M Contracts, Down
District Council, stage sponsors McKinstry Motorsport, BLRC
Landrover Specialists and HMC Communications and the King’s
Inn Castlewellan for hosting the Rally HQ.
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Top
3 finishers & top 2wd crews at the finish of the
F&M Contracts Down Rally 2009
Photo: www.roydempster.com
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Results:
1. Kenny McKinstry/Noel Orr – Subaru Impreza S9 WRC
2. Derek McGarrity/James McKee – Ford Focus WRC
3. Donagh Kelly/Kevin Flanagan – Mitsubishi lancer
Evo 9
4. Enda McNulty/Ronan O’Kane – Subaru Impreza
N
5. Raymond Mason/Peter Martin – Mitsubishi Evo 9
6. Oran Donnelly/Paul Hughes – Ford Escort Mk2
7. Emma McKinstry/Kenny Hull – Subaru Impreza S8 WRC
8. John McGaffin/Declan Tumilty – Subaru Impreza 99WRC
9. Jody McGrath/Paul Fox – Subaru Legacy N
10. Declan Leonard/Dara Leonard – Ford Fiesta ST
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